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I saw a brief documentary about a Dutch photographer a couple of years ago who did something like this. IIRC, he captured on MF film, made interpositives and then enlarged these onto plates to arrive at his tintypes. Unfortunately, I can't remember the series this was part of.

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

It's always hard to tell from internet images, but they look pretty good to me. You'd be the best judge, as you can hold the plate in your hand. Can you see any pixilation in the tintypes, either by naked eye or with a loupe?

"I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer

It's always hard to tell from internet images, but they look pretty good to me. You'd be the best judge, as you can hold the plate in your hand. Can you see any pixilation in the tintypes, either by naked eye or with a loupe?

No pixilation that I can detect. There's a very subtle "hint" that the image has been copied, however, rather than having been shot live. I can't describe it with any precision, but it looks copied to me. Nevertheless, I'm happy with the result. Thanks very much for your help with this, Mark.

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Robert, I do this a lot. They will never quite look the same as an in camera tintype. I started with film positives but have switched to using Pictorico with scanned film or digital files. The larger the transparency positive, the better the plates will look. Pictorico has a texture that looks almost like grain and it shows up more on plates with 4x5 or smaller positives. I use an 8x10 enlarger with a cold head to make my plates which allows for pretty fast exposure times. It takes a little time to get the density and contrast dialed in but a lot of that can be controlled when you make the inter positive. I make plates from 4x5 up to 8x10. I am going to start making larger ones (up to 16x20) next month. You can see some of my wet plate work on my website:

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Originally Posted by cuypers1807

Robert, I do this a lot. They will never quite look the same as an in camera tintype. I started with film positives but have switched to using Pictorico with scanned film or digital files. The larger the transparency positive, the better the plates will look. Pictorico has a texture that looks almost like grain and it shows up more on plates with 4x5 or smaller positives. I use an 8x10 enlarger with a cold head to make my plates which allows for pretty fast exposure times. It takes a little time to get the density and contrast dialed in but a lot of that can be controlled when you make the inter positive. I make plates from 4x5 up to 8x10. I am going to start making larger ones (up to 16x20) next month. You can see some of my wet plate work on my website:

I enjoy making tintypes of subject matter that normally can't be photographed because of its location or movement.

I used Pictorico, too, and noticed the "grain-like" appearance under the fine grain magnifier. I also see the effects on some of my plates. Haven't attempted anything bigger than 4x5, but I'm still in the learning stages and hammering down the technical aspects of pouring collodion and developing the plates. Thanks for the info, Joseph.